Fire in our hearts - Jesus Army

FIRE IN OUR HEARTS
CITY ON A HILL
of selflessness and self-discipline is essentially beyond criticism.
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That was inspiring. Their portrait of charismatic worship,
though, we found hilarious.
Members go into a trance-like state, sobbing, muttering, and
swaying with arms outstretched. Stanton preaches for two or
three hours. The rest of the time is given to violent rhythmic
singing, prayer, and individual rambling outpourings. This creates
a state of emotional climax and abandon. Combined with
late hours, poor food, and lack of normal emotional outlets, the
members are continually swung between deprivation and ecstasy.
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It was a strange caricature! Noel (unbeknown to himself!)
had been to the States, the hot-bed of cults. The plebs suffered
from a lack of veg and a surfeit of spuds. Members
were pasty-faced and overweight. Children were subdued (ho!
ho!) and undersized. We shared all our clothes and had little
idea where our money went. All in all we had a ‘fanatical
desire to reach perfection at the cost of our normal equilibrium’
— in other words, we were religious nutters!
There were deplorable references to the deaths, several
years before, of Dave and Steve. Parts of the document were
savage.
Individuals bent on our downfall were delighted with such
material. One local woman was particularly virulent and a
local pentecostal minister was obsessively anti-Bugbrooke.
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